Well, There’s Always Baseball

With the top two sports in uncertain water, it's on to the diamond.

I have spent an inordinate amount of time over the past year with my head and thoughts glued to either a basketball or a football so now that both are not only over, but are soon to be brothers in lockout, what's left for me to focus my attention on?

There's NASCAR, of course, but I consider it more of necessity gone wild than an actual sport. Driving is something that is needed and I'm confused on how doing it faster and in ovals can make it more interesting.

There's golf, which I am personally going to attempt to do this summer (much to the amusement of any witnesses), if I can get my stomach to stop trying to get as far away from me as humanly possible. While it may be fun to do (I'll admit some speculation on this), I fail to be able to stomach it on the tv. To be honest, it's more a lack of connection with the players themselves. As a group, golfers seem to be a mellow, soft spoken lot, and when you don't have the players to take some of your attention, all you're left with is the sport itself, which is beating the crap out of a little white ball until it gets into a little cup in the ground. There's no violence, cursing, and even the announcers speak in hushed tones., so unless I'm in need of a nap…..

There's the WNBA….I think…are they playing right now?

So I guess, through the process of elimination, that leaves me with baseball as my sport of choice for the next month or two.

Taking a cursory look at the season so far, things look to be somewhat interesting entering my sports down-time. The Red Sox and the Yankees are slugging it out for the top spot in the AL East, unless you make them play each other, then it's Boston all day long. The reigning World Series Champs, the San Francisco Giants are first in the NL West. They aren't exactly tearing it up but hey, first is first.

Oh, Wait! I vaguely recall that the Phillies were expected to be the frontrunners this year with that wicked pitching staff they possess, how are they doing? Well, look at that, best record in the MLB, things seem to be going right for them so far. Am glancing down the standings as I type and….HOLY CRAP!

THE PIRATES ARE 33-33!!!!!!!!!!!

Taking a quick look at calender….yep, we are in the middle of June….and it's not the early 90's…that means that this is really happening! My lovable losers are at .500 and only 4 games back from first in the NL Central. I DO BELIEVE IN MIRACLES!!!!

And there you go, a reason to watch baseball.

Gotta tell you a secret right about now, I'm not really hurting for sports at the moment, I like them all, but with basketball and football in limbo, this kind of think is exactly where a majority of people are at right now. So my advice to you is this, if you find yourself in need of a sports fix, turn on some baseball. It's America's pastime and while it may not always be the most exciting 3 hours of your life, there's something about a slow moving baseball game on a warm summer day that just screams relaxing.